10 curious facts about Octopuses

The octopus is much more than eight legs and tiny suction cups. With 300 recognized species spread throughout our oceans, there are many facts about this amazing creature that may surprise curious divers. Check out our collection of the top 10 fascinating things you may not know about the octopus:

1. The octopus has three hearts – two move blood past the gills and the third moves blood to the organs. Did you know their blood is the colour blue?

2. Their hearts stop beating when they swim, which is why they tend to “crawl” more often than swim quickly.

3. Octopuses are ancient – with the oldest fossil dating 296 million years ago.

4. They can hide in plain sight, thanks to the ability to change their skin instantly to mimic the surrounding environment.

5. Studies show that octopuses are highly intelligent and learn easily through observation of other octopuses.

6. They have been observed using “tools” – shells, rocks and other objects are used to construct fortresses and may even be carried for protection.

7. When scared, octopuses release ink which dulls a predator’s sense of smell and blocks their sight, allowing for a safe getaway.

8. If an octopus gets caught by a predator, it can escape by losing its arm and can regrow it later on.

9. Octopuses can bite with beak-like jaws and have venomous saliva. The blue-ring octopus has venom so strong it can kill a human in mere minutes.

10. Female octopuses can lay up to 400,000 eggs. After they hatch, the mother dies quickly.

One of the most diverse families in the ocean today -- marine bivalve mollusks known as Lucinidae (or lucinids) -- originated more than 400 million years ago in the Silurian period, with adaptations and life habits like those of its modern members. A new study tracks the remarkable evolutionary expansion of the lucinids through significant symbiotic relationships.

A US firm has started work on huge floating cages that will hold 1,000 tonnes of fish in the deep sea off Hawaii’s coast.

Hawaii Oceanic Technology Inc. (HOTI) has received permits to build 12 cages, which it calls “Oceanospheres“, in a 247-acre area off the coast of Hawaii, which it has leased out.

The floating fish farms will be 180 feet wide cages submerged at a depth of 20 metres. The farms will raise tuna fish from egg to harvest size in a self-contained system. The company hopes to harvest fish within 18 months.

“Our goal is to develop a new, environmentally responsible way to raise tuna in deep waters,” Bill Spencer, CEO of HOTI was quoted as saying in media reports.

HOTI hopes to cash in on ocean fish farming which is estimated to be a US$75 (€56.033) billion market by 2020, West Hawaii Today reported.

The floating fish farms will be 180 feet wide cages submerged at a depth of 20 metres. The farms will raise tuna fish from egg to harvest size in a self-contained system. The company hopes to harvest fish within 18 months.

Have you ever considered undergoing brain-thickening surgery, only to find that such a thing does not exist? And that the guy in the van was probably not actually a surgeon? Well, consider fish. Dr. Cyrus Raji, a resident radiologist at UCLA, appreciates value beyond the cosmetics of a thick cerebral cortex. He's the lead researcher...

“DigitalJournal.com Cod levels at all-time low in Northeast waters WCVB Boston An updated assessment of the Gulf of Maine cod shows the fish spawning at levels lower than seen in data stretching back to the 1930s, scientists say.”

Work is underway to create a five-year plan to be used as a roadmap for developing commercial uses for Philippine strains of microalgae. Known as the Algae Research and Commercialization Master Plan, one of the plan’s primary pathways leads to development of microalgae as aquafeeds.

This year, the Philippine Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) released P10 million to start off the National Aquafeeds Research and Development Program. About 60 species of microalgae have already been screened for food and aquaculture In the Philippines.

The University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños, and UP in the Visayas, are working with the Bohol Island State University to develop feed formulations using microalgae, seaweeds and seaweed by-products, and water hyacinth as possible protein sources. The feeds come in various forms: algal paste, nutrient concentrates, and as floating and sinking pellets. These will be field-tested on milkfish, shrimps, and tilapia.

Through the algae masterplan, the country is in a bid to develop at least five local strains of microalgae for the world market for algal products: Chlorella vulgaris, Isochrysis, Nannochloropsis spp., Tetraselmis spp., and Spirulina platensis.

Other than feed development, the algae masterplan will direct algal research towards germplasm collection, preservation and maintenance, processing, and value-adding for production of bioactive compounds, nutraceuticals and functional foods, nanomaterials, crop protectants and algal polysaccharides; and development of high-rate algal production systems including design and local fabrication of photobioreactors.

The Philippines Congressional Committee on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) has identified the masterplan as one of their six Science and Technology (S&T) Innovation Clusters. The S&T innovation cluster concept involves strategic alliances among academic institutions, research consortia, private and foreign companies, and government funding institutions to deliver technologies that would fuel fledging industries towards global competitiveness.

changing C O L O R S by fish ...............Octopuses, squid, and chameleons can do it. And now, it turns out that a fish can do it too. The rockpool goby is the latest animal discovered to have the ability to change their color and the brig...

Jellyfish Irukandji, which took their name from the homonymous neighboring tribe Aboriginal people are particularly poisonous and extremely small in size, reaching just one cubic centimeter in volume. Unlike the Keesingia gigas size as a human hand, while maintaining the same toxicity sting, which can cause pain, nausea, vomiting, and in extreme cases, stroke and cardiac arrest.

A species of jellyfish uses a strategy called simulated annealing, normally associated with the fastest supercomputers in the world, to seek food.

For mathematicians, the fast simulated annealing is an algorithm that performs a supercomputer and enables finding optimal solutions to complex problems in a relatively short time. For jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo, fast simulated annealing is an extremely sophisticated search strategy, broken into a series of predictable movements that bring the jellyfish ever closer to large amounts of plankton, the preferred prey.

"This method is hierarchically classified as highly effective during the search process, as when an area has been explored extensively, then the researcher settles in next and starts a new period of intensive search," said Andy Reynolds, lead researcher for the Institute Rothamsted in the United Kingdom.

Other, less sophisticated strategies have been observed previously in nature, but never one so complex, according to Reynolds. Sharks, penguins, bees, ants, turtles, even primitive people have used less sophisticated techniques, but only that jellyfish that is found in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, stands out for the level and effectiveness of the strategy.

The reason is that most marine organisms use this method has mainly to do with their diet. The jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo need to look the most concentrated prey to satisfy his appetite, while organizations such as sharks and penguins just met with the occasional fish will encounter first.

This high level of discrimination is the reason that attracts mathematicians and engineers in the fast simulated annealing for supercomputers, says Reynolds. Based on mathematics and computer models, the researchers found that, like jellyfish, mathematicians tend to apply this strategy only when looking for the best solution to a problem, not a variety of possible solutions.

Have you ever considered undergoing brain-thickening surgery, only to find that such a thing does not exist? And that the guy in the van was probably not actually a surgeon? Well, consider fish. Dr. Cyrus Raji, a resident radiologist at UCLA, appreciates value beyond the cosmetics of a thick cerebral cortex. He's the lead researcher...

In Western Tanzania tribes of wandering foragers called Hadza eat a diet of roots, berries, and game. According to a new study, their guts are home to a microbial community unlike anything that's been seen before in a modern human population -- providing, perhaps, a snapshot of what the human gut microbiome looked like before our ancestors figured out how to farm about 12,000 years ago.

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